Democracy in Latin America: Problems and prospects

This essay examines, by way of a series of brief country sketches, the current state of democratization in Latin America. It argues that in the formal sense progress has been significant but that only in a handful of countries has the economic development which democracy requires taken place. Many serious impediments (corruption, party weaknesses, public alienation, and poor policy implementation among them) remain. It will be decades before a definitive judgement can be reached.     

Conceptualizing and measuring subnational democracy across Indian states

India is often credited for its success as the world’s largest democracy, but variation in subnational democracy across its states has not been systematically incorporated into scholarship on subnational regimes. This paper develops a conceptualization of subnational democracy based on four constitutive dimensions – turnover, contestation, autonomy and clean elections – and introduces a comprehensive dataset to measure each of the dimensions between 1985 and 2013. The inclusion of India – an older parliamentary democracy with a centralized federal system – broadens the universe of cases for the study of subnational regimes, and reveals variation across constitutive dimensions that has not yet been theorized. The paper shows that threats to subnational democracy come from multiple directions, including the central government and non-state armed actors, that subnational variation persists even decades after a transition at the national-level, and that subnational democracy declines in some states in spite of the national democratic track record.     

International assistance to promote independent media in transition and post-conflict societies

This article focuses on an important but neglected area of democracy assistance: international aid to build and strengthen independent media in transition and post-conflict societies. The purpose of such assistance is to promote democratization by facilitating the free flow of information, transparency, accountability in the government, and economic growth. The article describes the origin of media assistance, examines the focus of media programmes, and presents some of the most important policy and programmatic lessons derived from fieldwork in seven locations: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Central America, Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Serbia. The article ends with a plea for further research by the academic community on the subject.     

The United States and the Promotion of Democracy in Latin America: Then, Now and Tomorrow

The United States has been deeply involved in Latin American affairs for over a century, but promoting democracy has only recently become a priority. The end of the Cold War presented a unique opportunity to provide greater support for democracy in the Western Hemisphere. This article examines the main multilateral and bilateral actions undertaken by the United States to promote democracy in Latin America in recent decades. It makes use of a newly available dataset that specifies the investment made on democracy in different countries and sectors between 1990 and 2005. It also addresses the challenges that the United States confronts in promoting democracy in the region at the current time and the possible scenarios for the near future.     

Trends and Constraints of Partial Democracy in Latin America

This article analyses the mixed forms and results of the institutionalisation of partial democracy in conjunction with free market policies in the last two decades in Latin America. It assesses trends and constrains in domains with important implications for the quality of democracy in the region, by asking the following questions: Is there an unequivocally new political and administrative culture or are older cultures proving to be resilient? Are the new means of delivering what have hitherto been regarded as public goods facilitating democracy, or hindering it? And are new constitutional arrangements and their legal corollaries and consequences facilitating participation and the formation of democratic public spheres? Posing these questions and looking for answers in the actual processes of democratisation and the introduction of free-market policies, moves analysis from the realm of models of democracy to the realm of democratic practice and highlights the ensuing tensions with the models of democracy adopted and shared with the core countries of the developed West. This research was supported by a generous grant from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (1999-2002), which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank the participants of the workshop on 'Limits of politics, market crises and social disintegration' (Centre for Latin American Studies, Cambridge University, 29-30 November 2002), as well as the editorial board of Cambridge Review of International Affairs and the anonymous readers, for their criticisms and constructive remarks.     

拉美国家的腐败与可治理性问题

腐败是影响实现可治理性目标的一个核心的问题,对于一个国家政治制度的合法性、民主政治的发展、民众对政府的信任和参与政治的热情、社会公正乃至社会伦理道德的清明都会产生极为严重的损害。拉美地区腐败现象比较严重,造成民众对各类正式制度产生不信任,从而使政府和政治体制的合法性面临威胁,导致可治理性问题和可治理性危机。拉美地区的反腐斗争在一段时期内取得了一定成绩,除少数国家外,腐败恶性发展和持续蔓延的势头有所遏制,但腐败并没有得到有效控制,尤其是腐败程度没有发生根本性改观,拉美的反腐败斗争还面临着严峻的挑战。     

Democracy and Human Rights in the Mexican States: Elections or Social Capital?

Why does the relationship between a government and its citizens deteriorate to violence? Large-N cross-national quantitative analyses of human rights violations have found an inverse relationship between democracy and violations. These analyses, however, have not been able to address the central finding of an influential subnational analysis of democracy that stresses the importance of a single dimension of democracy, social capital. In this article we combine these two streams of research with fresh data from the Mexican states to investigate how and why democracy inhibits violations. Theoretically, we connect a policy interest in protecting human rights to politicians' office-seeking goals and to the level of social capital. Empirically, our data allow us to disentangle two principal components of democracy, elections and social capital, and include important control variables, notably ethnic diversity, which have been largely left out of the cross-national analyses. Our central finding is that the electoral components rather than social capital produce important consequences for the protection of citizens' human rights.     

Contemporary Social Movements in Latin America

Social movements have multiplied in Latin America since the 1990s. Like the parties and governments of the Left, these movements aim to resist neo-liberal reform. Their support comes from the indigenous populations, landless peasants, unemployed workers, and public sector employees. They function by means of participatory democracy and don＇t seek to take state power. International contacts and cooperation are growing rapidly. Such movements have had an important impact upon the region. However, they are facing new problems in the years ahead.     

美国与拉美民粹主义的主要区别与左右分野

民粹主义在美国和拉美地区具有不同的发生和发展史。与在拉美不同,民粹主义在美国起源时间较早,但发生频率较低,持续时间较短,彼此关联性不强,影响程度较弱,激进程度较轻。特朗普式的民粹主义在很大程度上体现了美国民粹主义的“拉美化”倾向。民粹主义在美国和拉美有很明显的左右分野,左翼民粹主义在拉美长期占据主流,右翼民粹主义在美国则是主要形式。在与何种类型的左右翼结合、是否与民族主义结盟、集权程度等多个方面,这两个地区的左右翼民粹主义也存在较大差别。目前,美国和拉美的左右翼民粹主义正在同时崛起。特朗普的民粹主义可谓集美国的左右翼民粹,尤其是极右翼民粹主义之大成。民粹主义说到底是民主政治的民粹化,源于大众民主政治的内生问题。美拉民粹主义的重要差异,主要来自两个地区不同的政治文化传统和选举民主机制,以及民主体制不同性质和程度的政治衰败。美拉民粹主义左右分野的背后,实质上是公民的基本权利保障不彰所致。具体而言,是自由议程与平等议程之间的张力以及由此导致的社会主要矛盾的不同。因此,必须认真对待左右翼民粹主义,加强制度建设,提高国家治理能力,同时还应积极参与全球治理。     

Counting the development costs of the conflict in North-Eastern Nigeria: the economic impact of the Boko Haram-led insurgency

Nigeria presents an important case for examining the interaction between economic emergence and (in)security on account of the Boko Haram-led insurgency. This paper interrogates long-standing theoretical assumptions about the economic consequences of violent conflict in such a complex space. It analyses the cost of North-East Nigeria’s conflict on development by considering its impact on the economy at the national and subnational levels. Generalised assumptions about the ways through which conflict affects development appear to hold in some regards but not in others. Evidence suggests some disruption in fiscal adjustments at the macro level, trade and investment as well as agricultural production and commerce within the North-East but less so with regard to economic growth and foreign direct investment flows at the national level. The paper finds evidence of a dichotomy in terms of the impact of the conflict on the national and subnational economy. There is a high degree of containment of the repercussions of the conflict at the subnational level. However, there remains a degree of interconnectedness across these strata that are influenced by both domestic and international political economy dynamics.     

Why did Thailand's middle class turn against a democratically elected government? The information-gap hypothesis

In 2006, Bangkok's middle-class residents overwhelmingly supported the military coup that displaced the elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Survey research shows that opponents of Thaksin had a stronger commitment to liberal democracy and possibly to royalist values while rural voters supported Thaksin because he fulfilled their social demands. Opposition to Thaksin was not motivated by economic interests, but rather, there is some evidence that urban middle- and upper-class voters disliked Thaksin because they heard negative reporting about him, which were less available in the countryside. These findings are compatible with a new theory of democratic consolidation, in which the upper classes have the means that would enable and encourage them to pay sufficient attention to politics to discover that what they viewed as ‘good government’ was violated by the ruling party, which could have led to demands for more democracy historically. More recently, however, in Thailand and perhaps other instances in Southeast Asia and Latin America, those with the money and leisure to follow politics closely have heard reports about the ‘bad government’ of populist, democratically elected leaders, and thus have turned against them.     

Institutions of Direct Democracy and Accountability in Latin America's Presidential Democracies

The crisis of representative democracy in Latin America became apparent in a wave of constitutional reforms during the 1990s. A striking feature of these reforms was the incorporation of institutions of direct democracy (IDD) into most post-transitional Latin American constitutions. Despite the shortage of efficient mechanisms of accountability and its concomitant weakening of democratic consolidation in the region, the potential of IDD to bolster accountability in the representative structures of presidential democracies has not yet received systematic scholarly attention. To fill this theoretical gap, the article presents a typology designed to assess the accountability potential of IDD, which is used to classify the constitutional provisions for direct democracy in Latin America's 18 presidential democracies. After juxtaposing the findings of constitutional analysis to the actual record of direct democracy in the region, the article concludes that there is a considerable discrepancy between constitutional accountability potential and the empirical evidence. Whereas the adoption of IDD has hardly affected the vertical dimension of accountability, the practice whereby presidents use referendums to bypass legislative opposition has worked to the detriment of the horizontal dimension of accountability.     

Counter-mythologising “media freedom”: including the audience in media freedom discourses and a new normative position for the global south

This article argues for a conscious counter-mythologisation of the popularly utilised term “media freedom” within media political and policy discourses. It further argues for a diversion from understanding this term to refer exclusively to the sphere of media production involving the ability or freedoms of media producers to do their work without hindrances to their independence – whether these stem from state actors, media owners or other external forces. The article contends that a free media should theoretically, and in addition, be considered from the perspective of the audience(s) and its respective prospects of access and accessibility to the entirety of the media landscape. Since challenges of meaningful access and accessibility to media communications persist in much of the Global South, the article concludes by suggesting a newly theorised normative approach to the role of the media in a democracy, which is in keeping with socio-political conditions in historically “Othered” regions of the world. Utilising the example of a counter-mythologisation of media freedom, and adopting an audience-centred approach, the article additionally contends that any attempt at formulating new media theory ought to be contextualised within the global crisis of inequality in order for it to be relevant to the majority audience.     

The Barriers to Media Opening in Latin America

Despite the spread of electoral democracy, few Latin American media systems today encourage the deepening of democracy. We attribute this outcome to (a) generalized weakness in the rule of law, (b) holdover authoritarian legislation, (c) oligarchic ownership of media outlets, (d) uneven journalistic standards, and (e) limited audience access to diverse sources of information. Reforms designed to address these problems could include the appointment of special prosecutors to investigate crimes against journalists; replacement of criminal libel laws with civil procedures; legislation protecting journalists' sources and guaranteeing transparency in government; the establishment of nonpartisan boards to allocate broadcast concessions, administer state-owned stations, and distribute government advertising; user fees to expand public media; and various measures to enhance professional standards.     

当代拉美社会运动初探

蓬勃发展的社会运动是当代拉关左翼政治的重要内容,其表现形式包括印第安人运动、农民运动、失业工人运动、公共部门抗议活动等.拉美社会运动的主要特点是:以反对新自由主义和争取真正民主为主要诉求;以族群认同为基础形成新的参与主体;采取参与制民主组织和管理模式;一般不以夺取国家政权为目标;土著印第安人政治参与意识增强;国际化趋势日益明显.拉美社会运动是当代拉美左翼政治的重要组成部分,与左翼政党、左翼政权共同构成了拉美左派的三大主体,对拉美各国的政治进程产生首重要影响.但同时,拉美社会运动,也面临如何处理与左派政党和政权的关系以及内部分歧等问题.     

中拉关系及中国对拉战略研究的一种进路:进展与问题

中拉关系研究日益成为拉美学界的一种“显学”。有关这一研究领域的问题、材料和思路繁多,构成各具特色且相互参照的研究路径。21世纪第二个10年间出现的进路之一,聚焦于中拉关系及其研究的标志意义、问题意识和学术积累,尝试将学界有关中拉关系的主要分析模式与最新的政治、经济、社会交往数据资料整合,为这一研究确立一些基本的研究议题、参量和思路,力图全面考察中拉关系的历史进程、发展现状及其在区域乃至全球范围呈现的意义。作为保持该研究进程可持续性的阶段性成果,这一进路提炼出十大问题,即中拉关系新阶段的界定、中拉关系的战略定位、中拉整体合作与双边合作的辩证关系、中拉整体合作与拉美地区主义、中拉产能合作、中拉科技合作、中拉人文交流、中拉关系的制度性约束、中拉关系与全球治理和中拉发展战略对接等。进一步的研究则需要关注中拉关系及其研究的动态化和前沿性、主体化和互应性以及多样化和联动性等几对关系。     

My Country,My Country,directed by Laura Poitras,produced by Jocelyn Glatzer and Laura Poitras Iraq in Fragments,directed by James Longley,produced by John Sinno and James Longley

A new form of “entertaining news,” accessed by most through television, has become a privileged domain of politics for the first time in countries “beyond the West” in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. What are the political consequences of this development: What is the relationship between media and politics in these regions? We answer these questions through a case study of India, the world's largest democracy, where two decades of media expansion and liberalization have yielded the largest number of commercial television news outlets in the world. We show why prevailing theories of media privatization and commercialization cannot account for the distinctive architecture of media systems in places like India. In this article, we first provide an overview of the historical and contemporary dynamics of media liberalization in India and the challenges that this poses to existing models and typologies of the media-politics relationship. We then present a new typology of media systems and a theoretical framework for studying the relationship between television news and democratic politics in India, and by extension in the global South. In the concluding section, we reflect on the broader comparative insights of the essay and discuss directions for future research. We believe that our alternative comparative framework captures more meaningfully the diversity and complexity of emerging media systems and their relationships to democratic practice in these regions.     

Media-usage patterns and political knowledge of NWU students: The 2009 election

Abstract

One of the central elements in a sustainable democracy is an informed and independent voters’ corps who is knowledgeable regarding democratic values and the policies of different parties, and who participates in democracy. The literature suggests that voters who are more heavy media users are also more politically knowledgeable. It follows that the media have an important informational role in a democracy. Against this background, the media usage patterns, media usage perceptions and political knowledge of the students of the North-West University on the Potchefstroom, Mafikeng and Vaal Triangle campuses were investigated during May 2009. This was done in the form of a quantitative survey that allowed students to report their real perceptions, experiences and knowledge levels. Questionnaires were administered in a self-administered style to avoid interviewer bias and to increase truthful self-reporting. Trained field workers used certain guidelines to ensure that the sample was representative of NWU students. The study found that students on all three campuses had poor levels of political knowledge. It was furthermore established that they were light users of media and did not often engage in political discussions with peers. On all three campuses, for political information television was the preferred medium, followed by radio. Although there were only weak correlations, it would seem that the students who were heavier users of media, were also more politically knowledgeable.     

Participatory democracy and ethnic minorities: opening inclusive new spaces or reproducing inequalities?

In the past decade, Latin America has emerged as the epicentre of participatory democracy innovations. Proponents argue that participation should lead to more equitable access to public goods and a greater sense of political efficacy. There has been considerable debate in the academic literature and in the public sphere over the extent to which participation can produce these benefits. Yet, while Latin America has witnessed an explosion of participatory mechanisms and related academic attention, the literature has focused on socioeconomic dimensions. There has been little attention paid to the experiences of racialized groups, such as indigenous peoples and Latin Americans of African descent. Research suggests that in order for participatory mechanisms to produce positive outcomes, they must be inclusive and offer participants a forum for real deliberation, but how do groups that have faced barriers related to racism and discrimination engage in these initiatives? Drawing on evidence from indigenous Ecuadorian and Afro-Venezuelan citizen participants, this article argues that participatory mechanisms may reproduce the very types of inequalities that representative institutions are criticized for. Comparing cases across and within different jurisdictions reveals that certain conditions enhance the ability of ethnic minorities to benefit from involvement in participatory mechanisms.     

试述中拉关系中的美国因素(2001～2010年)

中国和拉丁美洲关系源远流长,进入21世纪,中拉关系的快速发展备受瞩目。在越来越密切的中拉关系中,有许多重要的影响因素不容忽视,尤其是美国因素。新世纪中拉关系的迅速升温牵动着美国的神经,本文通过回顾并分析中拉关系、美拉关系10年来的发展历程,总结美国因素在中拉关系中的影响力,从而尝试找出更好地处理中、美、拉三者互动关系的方法。